GENEVA, 3 March 2017

Every week, IRIN’s team of editors takes a look at what lies ahead on our humanitarian agenda and curates a selection of some of the best reports, opinion, and journalism you may have missed:

What’s coming up?

Mosul’s back (it never went away)

In case you turned away for a minute, here’s a reminder that the battle of Mosul is ongoing and that for civilians it appears to be getting much worse. The UN says an average of 4,000 people are streaming out of western districts each day – plus it estimates there are up to 750,000 more trapped inside. Supplies of food and water are said to be running low, and many people live in the tightly packed old city, where civilians Thursday werefeared dead after a mosque was hit in what witnesses say was a strike from the air. Fleeing the city is a risk too, but conditions inside are so horrific that for some it’s worth the journey. Will aid agencies be ready to meet the needs of this new wave? They have been preparing forat least six months, but we all know that's no guarantee. Next week we’ll take you there, with testimony from civilians who have walked across the desert under fire, desperately seeking safety and help.

One day the war will end

Boko Haram attacked the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri early on Friday in a triple suicide bombing. The attack comes ahead of a visit by the UN Security Council to the city, part of a tour of the four-country Lake Chad region by diplomats to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis affecting 21 million people in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

The international community had its chance to act at the Oslo humanitarian conference last month. Analysts had called for a significant donor response –see our op-ed. What got pledged was$672 millionin new money spread over three years, against an appeal target of $1.5 billion for 2017. Neither the US or British governments made even a show of opening their wallets in Oslo. In these straitened times we must be glad for any mercy, but also mindful that the 2016 appeal was for a good deal less, $739 million, and wound up being only 53 percent funded.

Behind the humanitarian crisis looms Boko Haram. Nigeria repeatedly promises the jihadists are under control. Today’s bombing in Maiduguri proves otherwise. What to do? ResearcherAtta Barkindocalls for the opening of channels of dialogue. Someday, the war will be over, and the local vigilantes that have sprung up to defend their communities will be disbanded. The International Crisis Group issounding an alarmnow, of new dangers unless care is taken over how these young men are demobilised.

EU plan to detain migrants for up to 18 months

Migration is high on the agenda, once again, at next week’s European Council meeting in Brussels. Ahead of the meeting, the European Commission issued a slew of press releases trumpeting progress on various initiatives. The one that has grabbed the most headlines is an action plan on the return of irregular migrants, including a recommendation that member states detain people awaiting removal for up to 18 months to prevent them from absconding. At a press conference on Thursday, EU home affairs commissioner Dmitris Avramopoulos made it clear children would not be exempt. The Commission also released the latestfiguresfor the EU’s relocation and resettlement scheme, revealing that just 13,546 asylum seekers have been transferred from the overwhelmed frontline states of Italy and Greece. Several countries, including Hungary and Austria, have refused to participate in the scheme, while others have accepted only a handful. Also came a third progress report on thePartnership Framework with third countries, focusing on “results” in Niger, Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria, and on next steps such as finalising a readmission agreement with Nigeria by June. Our reporting last month highlighted how –dodgy statistics aside– the Niger deal has successfully stemmed northward migration, albeit whiledecimating the local economy.

Discover More

Xenophobes, hungry Yemenis, and open data: The cheat sheet

Hotspots to watch

The International Crisis Group has released its annual report on the top 10 conflicts where it believes the EU should look to take action to promote peace. Some are fairly predictable (Somalia, Syria, Yemen), but others you may not even have heard of. Gold star if you can find Nagorno-Karabakh, for example, on a map. The contested region is within the borders of Azerbaijan but has an ethnic Armenian majority and Armenia also claims sovereignty. The two countries went to war from 1992 to 1994 over control of the area, buttensions have been sizzlingmuch more recently. Last April, clashes erupted again and 200 people lost their lives. Other surprises on the list include Myanmar, which has been accused of crimes against humanity in its crackdown on ethnic Rohingya, and Venezuela, which has reached such a low ebb that civil conflict has become a real possibility.

Did you miss it?

Eritrean journeys on hold

Several thousand Eritreans are thought to leave their country every month, fleeing compulsory and open-ended national service, political persecution and a failing economy. Most cross into neighbouring Ethiopia, where they are accommodated in refugee camps, but not many remain there. This new report by the Overseas Development Institute looks at how policy decisions are influencing Eritreans’ decisions to move on, often towards Europe via the irregular route to Libya and across the Mediterranean. The main finding of the report is that livelihood support programmes in Ethiopia and the slim possibility of resettlement to a third country are not enough to offset the fact that refugees there are denied the right to work. Instead, they are forced to scrape out a living that might meet their basic needs but holds no promise for the future. This reality is captured by an excellent accompanying film following the experiences of Teddy Love, an Eritrean man who escaped eight years of military service to become a popular singer in Asmara before being arrested and imprisoned. Since arriving in Ethiopia seven years ago, he has eked out a living singing in nightclubs for tips to support his two children.

Yemenis fight for survival as famine looms

After flagging up last week that Yemen is facing the largest food insecurity emergency in the world, IRIN published a two-part feature this week from rural Taiz, where children and the elderly are already dying of malnutrition. Regular contributor Iona Craig has been writing on this crisis since 2010 and has covered the country’s downward spiral from neglected humanitarian disaster to civil conflict, all-out war and economic meltdown. Her words, aided by photographs from Ahmed al-Basha, now describe the reality of a rural Yemen on the brink of famine. Skin hangs from the scrawny hands of a baby girl who can’t be nourished by her starving mother, women and children collect precious drops of water from a dying spring, a healthcare system on its knees can’t possibly cope. But these are the lucky ones. In heraccompanying story, Craig ventures into the more remote highlands and finds al-Dashin, a displacement camp where death from malnutrition is becoming a regular event. Her conclusion: “Yemenis are renowned for their unwavering resilience. This is a rural-based society, well practised at caring for its own after decades in which there has been a near-total absence of a functioning state. But there has to be a breaking point. In a remote dusty wasteland in rural Taiz, that point of collapse is startlingly tangible.”

(TOP PHOTO: Protests in Aden, Yemen. CREDIT: Iona Craig)

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Source=http://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/03/03/eritrea-ethiopia-mosul-worsens-and-boko-haram-bombs-cheat-sheat

Yemane Mesgen eventually made it to Germany after a treacherous journey as a refugee [Yermi Brenner/Al Jazeera]

by

Yermi Brenner

Multimedia Journalist

Berlin, Germany - The most crucial decision for a person forced to flee their homeland is where to seek asylum. That is the hard lesson learned by Yemane Mesgen on his harrowing journey as arefugee.

Mesgen was born and raised inEritrea, where the government hascommitted crimes against humanity, including indefinite military or police service, according to the United Nations. In 2008, after he was recruited to be a policeman, Mesgen decided to flee his homeland. He considered going toEurope, but was afraid of the dangerous journey acrossLibyaand the Mediterranean Sea.

Instead, he choseIsraelas his destination for asylum.

The Israeli government "does not like refugees", the 28-year old Mesgen recently told Al Jazeera in the German capital. He spoke nearly fluent Hebrew, which he picked up during the seven years he lived in Israel.

Mesgen managed to safely crossSudanthrough the Sinai desert - where many Eritreans have beencaptured and tortured- and entered Israel in 2008.

Unfortunately for Mesgen, however, the Israeli government has been unwelcoming to Eritrean nationals, granting refugee status to less than one percent of arrivals.

Israel does not deport Eritreans back to their dangerous homeland because that would violate theUnited Nations Refugee Convention. Instead, Eritreans get short-term visas that must be continuously renewed, but they have no right to work or access to welfare services.

READ MORE: Meet the Eritrean refugee turned rescue volunteer

Mesgen lived in this legal limbo for seven years, getting by by working illegally in restaurants and sharing a tinyJerusalemflat with other Eritreans. Then, in 2015, Israeli authorities ordered him to reside in Holot, adetention centre for "illegal immigrants",which has the capacity to accommodate 3,000 people, without freedom of movement or the right to work.

The only other alternatives offered to Mesgen - andother Eritreans- were to return home voluntarily or leave Israel for another African nation. "I didn't want to go to Holot," Mesgen recalled. "I told them I cannot go back to my country, but I will go back toAfrica."

In July 2015, an Israeli immigration officer escorted Mesgen to Ben-Gurion international airport, handed him a one-way ticket toRwandawith a travel document for Rwandan immigration officials, and $3,500 in cash - the reward for those who exit Israel voluntarily.

The initiative was launched by the Israeli Immigration Authority in 2013 to persuade asylum seekers to leave the country. Mesgen is one of more than 14,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, who have left Israel through the voluntary departure programme over the past three years.

Israel - a signee of the UN Refugee Convention - sends people who need protection to countries that do not protect them, in the process, forcing asylum seekers to go on dangerous smuggling routes, according to reports by international and IsraeliNGOsand interviews that Al Jazeera conducted with Eritreans who made it to Europe.

False promises

Before leaving Israel, Mesgen received a letter that the Population and Immigration Authority distributed to Eritreans in the country. The letter promised those who leave voluntarily will be granted a residence permit and the right to work in the African country where they land. But when Mesgen arrived in Rwanda, he realised those promises were empty.

He said a man who introduced himself as "John from immigration" picked him up from a restricted area in Rwanda's international airport, took away the Israeli travel document, escorted him to a villa in the capital Kigali where other Eritreans stayed, and told him not leave the premise. After two days, John told the Eritreans he would smuggle them toUgandain exchange for $250 a person.

A letter presented to refugees on arrival in Rwanda [Yermi Brenner/Al Jazeera]

Mesgen's story about what happened to him in Rwanda is similar to testimonies from other Eritreans who exited Israel via the voluntary departure procedure.

Research by theInternational Refugee Rights Initiative - a non-profit organisation focusing primarily on Africa - found Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers who left Israel voluntarily were sent to Rwanda and Uganda. Upon arrival, they were either encouraged to leave these countries, or live under the radar without legal status.

In the reportDeported to the Unknownby theHotline for Refugees and Migrants - a Tel-Aviv based NGO -Eritreans who left Israel voluntarily testified they were denied residence permits in Rwanda, heldcaptive fordays at a villa in Kigali, and eventually were smuggled to Uganda.

Secret agreements

The legality of Israel's voluntary departure procedure was challenged in an Israeli court in 2014. The state declared it has secret agreements with two unidentified African countries to take in Eritreans and Sudanese who leave Israel. Revealing the identity of the two African countries and details of the agreements "may harm Israel's foreign relations", according to aletterthat Israel's Prime MinisterBenjamin Nethanyausent to the court.

Al Jazeera asked Israel's Population and Immigration Authority what it does to ensure the safety of those who voluntarily exit. Spokeswoman Sabin Hadad said in an email she could not provide details because the agreements Israel has with the two unnamed African countries are confidential.

READ MORE: Eritrean refugees in Israel sent to Uganda and Rwanda

For Mesgen, the journey from Rwanda toGermanywas both dangerous and costly. He travelled on smuggling routes across Uganda and intoSouth Sudan, where he was caught and imprisoned for two months.

"The South Sudan authorities told me, 'You don't have a passport so you might be a criminal.' I told them I am not a criminal - I said I was in Israel and now I came here. They said to me you don't have a passport, you don't have any Israeli document, you don't have Eritrea passport, it is dangerous for us. We cannot let you out of the prison," Mesgen recalled.

He bribed his way out of jail and continued his treacherous journey through Sudan and Libya to the coastal city of Benghazi, where he boarded a 10-metre-long fishing boat that would take him toItaly.

"There were 600 people on board, there was no space at all, people on top of each other, very tight. There were a lot of Eritreans and Somalis and other Africans," he said. "It was, of course, very scary to board this boat, but what can I do, I had no other choice."

'Burden-shifting'

While the Israeli court legitimised voluntary departure, theUnited Nation High Commission on Refugeeshas been critical of its implementation.

"We are concerned and we have raised the concerns with the government of Israel because we do have information that [refugees] are not necessarily having the necessary protection safeguards," UNHCR's representative in Israel, Walpurga Englbrecht, told Al Jazeera.

Englbrecht said Israel should provide assurances that asylum seekers who leave for the African countries will indeed be granted adequate documentation, residency permits, and the ability to work. UNHCR is not against voluntary departure, but Englbrecht said the procedure is problematic "if it is not really responsibility-sharing, but more burden-shifting".

READ MORE: Calais - Eritrean refugees tell of torture and fear

Israel is not the only one to implement voluntary departure procedures -Australiaand the European Union have similar systems in place. But the fact its agreements with Rwanda and Uganda are confidential raises red-flags, saidReuven Ziegler, aresearch associateat the Refugees Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.

Ziegler said asylum seekers have a "very precarious status, if at all" in Rwanda and Uganda, do not have access toRefugee Status Determination, and find themselves having to continue their journey and seek protection elsewhere.

That is exactly what happened to Mesgen and also to Aman, a 31-year-old Eritrean who spoke to Al Jazeera in Berlin. Aman - who today has refugee status in Germany - asked that his real name not be used because his mother and sister still live in Eritrea and he fears for their safety.

No monitoring

He fled his homeland in 2008 to avoid recruitment into the military. Relying on people smugglers, Aman tried to reach Israel where he thought he would be able to get protection status. On his way, however, he was abducted in Sinai - as wereas many as 30,000 Eritreans - and held captive for 35 days until his family paid ransom for his release. Aman said he was tortured and beaten, and pointed to a broken front tooth as one of the consequences of that horrific experience.

In Israel, he never received refugee status and had to renew his visa every fours months. He managed to find work illegally as a kitchen cleaner, and made enough money to survive - even enough to send to his mother in Eritrea.

"In Israel, I felt stress … I had some work but not freedom," Aman said. "There's no democracy in Israel."

In April 2014, after he was summoned to the Holot Detention Centre for Illegal Immigrants, he agreed to voluntarily leave the country. He said on his flight out of Israel 39 other Eritreans were with him, none ended up staying in Rwanda.

Israel does not monitor what happens to the Eritreans and Sudanese who land in Rwanda and Uganda, according to Sigal Rozen, public policy coordinator at theHotline for Refugees and Migrantsand author of theDeported to the Unknownreport.

"All the 47 interviewees that we managed to locate ... were not asked to provide phone numbers or addresses to the Israeli authorities, and, of course, they had no contact with the Israeli authorities after they left," Rozen said.

The majority of Eritreans plan to smuggle their way intoEthiopiaand try to survive there, while some head on the dangerous route through Sudan and Libya for Italy, with the hope of finding refuge in Europe.

"We receive a lot of calls and emails from worried relatives around the world - and also in Israel - about people who left and disappeared," Rozen said.

Captured by ISIL

Aman said five Eritreans aboard his flight out of Israel tried to make it to Europe but were captured and killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in Libya. He pulled out his phone and played an online video byISIL, known as ISIS - showing preparations for beheadings - and identified two people he knew being led to their deaths.

While Aman did not fall into ISIL's hands, he faced significant danger and uncertainty. Similar to Mesgen's story, Aman said when he landed in Kigali he was sent to a nearby hotel and two days later was smuggled out of Rwanda to Uganda.

From there, he tried to reach South Sudan, but was caught by border guards who did not let him leave until he surrendered all the money he had left from the $3,500 that Israeli authorities handed him when he left. They let him keep $50 and told him to go away.

"I didn't have clothes, I didn't have a bag, nothing," Aman said.

WATCH: Identity of 'smuggler' extradited to Italy questioned

His younger brother was in Israel at the time, but now also lives in Germany. He sent Aman some money to Juba, capital of South Sudan. After collecting the cash, Aman travelled to Khartoum, Sudan's capital, where he met his wife who he had not seen in six years.

She is an Eritrean who had been living in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The couple made their way through Libya - where they again were captured and forced to pay ransom - and then across the Mediterranean Sea on an overcrowded smugglers' boat with hundreds of other people from various countries.

No data is available on how many asylum seekers who left Israel voluntarily made it to Europe. However, it is well documented that more than 10,000 peoplediedin the Mediterranean Sea over the past three years trying to reach its shores.

Since 2008, about 123,000 Eritreans have applied for asylum in the European Union, mostly in Germany andSweden.

The lucky ones

Aman and his wife arrived in Germany in October 2014. He said the journey from Rwanda to Germany cost $11,000, which was spent on official bribes and smuggler payments.

Mesgen - who was aboard a smuggling boat that was lost at sea for 48 hours before being rescued by the Italian navy - managed to reach Germany in September 2015. He said he paid $10,000 for a similar trip.

Both men were eager to tell their stories because they know many Eritreans still in Israel and wanted to raise awareness about the consequences of the voluntary departure programme. Aman and Mesgen emphasised how fortunate they were to survive.

There are 29,367 Eritreans still in Israel, according to the latest data published by the Israeli Immigration and Population Authority. As of last December, there were 1,860 Eritreans and Sudanese living in the Holot Detention Centre for Illegal Immigrants, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In Germany,Aman's and Mesgen's asylum applications were reviewed within months, and they were granted refugee status with all itssocial and economic rights. Throughout the EU, about 93 percent of Eritrean asylum applicants are granted some form of protection. 

Aman and Mesgen are currently full-time students at a state-funded language school, and both recently became fathers for the first time. Aman and his family live in the centre of Berlin, while Mesgen, his wife - also an Eritrean refugee - and toddler have a two-room flat on the southern outskirts of the German capital.

The rent for both their apartments is covered by Germany's welfare system, and each family gets a monthly allowance of about 1,000 euros ($1,050).

"I am happy to be here," Mesgen said recently outside a Berlin church that serves a community of Eritrean refugees every Sunday morning. "Here it is good, thank God. I'm lucky."

Source=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/rejected-israel-eritreans-find-shelter-germany-170221071249657.html